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April 6th, 2008, 12:33 PM
"Son of Rambow" is a new British movie that was released on 4th April.
Like probably most British movies it is a comedy.
It is based on a true story and is about a group of children who decide to make their own action movie.
MOVIE WEBSITE: http://www.sonoframbow.com/
Set in "A long, hot summer in the early '80s", the film is a gentle coming-of-age comedy. It tells the story of two schoolboys who are inspired by Rambo: First Blood (which they see on a pirate videotape) to make their own action adventure film. Lee Carter (Will Poulter) — the worst-behaved boy in school — has access to home video equipment as he helps his brother's video pirating enterprises. Will (Bill Milner) couldn't be more different; quiet and shy he comes from a family who belong to the strict Plymouth Brethren religious sect; he is forbidden to watch films or television. When he gets caught up with Carter and accidentally sees First Blood, he is blown away, and becomes Carter's willing co-star and stuntman.
Son Of Rambow Preview
Feature length: 95 minutes
Country: Britain (2008 )
Certificate: 12A (those under 12 must be accompanied by an adult)
Two boys set out to recreate Rambo in this nostalgic, moving tale of 1980s childhood from the filmmakers behind The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy
Son Of Rambow is the second film of 2008 to wistfully recall the VHS age of the 1980s as a time of artistic awakening. Released just after Michel Gondry's celebration of DIY blockbuster remakes in Be Kind Rewind, Son Of Rambow tells the story of two boys brought together by a shared dream to remake Sylvester Stallone's first performance as John Rambo in First Blood.
The remake is the idea of Lee Carter (Poulter), who wants to turn his video piracy kit to more creative uses. He meets the withdrawn Will Proudfoot (Milner) in the school corridor, both boys excluded from lessons for very different reasons; Carter for his disruptive behaviour, Proudfoot for the religious beliefs of his family, the Plymouth Brethern, which forbid him to sit in on any class in which a television is playing.
This proscription means that when young Will watches First Blood on Carter's TV, it blows his mind. He runs home in a charged state, halfway between fantasy and a hallucination in which his father is imprisoned and he is the action hero to free him. In fact, Will's father is dead of an aneurysm that struck him down while he was mowing the lawn. So when he arrives home there is only his mother (Stevenson) waiting for him. Lee Carter's home life is similarly under-populated; his mother and step-dad are off in Spain, leaving him in the care of his surly older brother.
Rambo is a surrogate father figure to both these boys, and their effort to recreate the film is a rite of passage into manhood. Anyone who was a boy in the 1980s will remember the muscular grip that Stallone's two key characters of Rocky and Rambo had over their early adolescence. Rambo's serrated blade was a coveted item, the handle unscrewed and within there was wire and various survival implements. Boys want to prove themselves. In the freedom of a 1980s childhood, those challenges were faced in the scrubland and disused factories on the outskirts of provincial towns. Nature was our video game.
Son Of Rambow luxuriates in the sentiment of a lost era. When a coachload of exchange students arrive from France, they bring a Gallic sophistication unknown to callow English youth. In the smoking, new wave figure of Didier Revol (Sitruk), it also delivers a star for Carter and Proudfoot's production. With Revol on board, the whole school wants a part in the film, leading to a kids-from-'Fame' style climax that is undercut by sudden tragedy.
Moving, funny and utterly British, this is a triumph for all concerned. Poulter is hard-faced, sullen yet vulnerable as Lee Carter. Milner is gawky, otherworldly yet determined as Proudfoot. Against their well-observed, changing relationship, an idealistic vision of the 1980s turns, the hair, the clothes, and a sixth form common room that is all new wave music and boardgames. Consider it a warm, hazy counterpart to Shane Meadows's harder-edged 1980s skinhead memoir This Is England.
The comparison with Be Kind Rewind is more flattering. Like Gondry, Hammer & Tongs established their reputation as creators of music videos, and some of their background in the three-minute bravura sequence finds its way in here. Unlike Gondry, they handle the narrative demands of a feature film far better, with the trajectories of the two boys interweaving, descending, ascending and ultimately coming together in a genuinely moving resolution.
Verdict
A warm, accessible and smart British film that will bring a tear to the eye of anyone who was once a British boy.
http://www.channel4.com/film
"Son of Rambow" is a new British movie that was released on 4th April.
Like probably most British movies it is a comedy.
It is based on a true story and is about a group of children who decide to make their own action movie.
MOVIE WEBSITE: http://www.sonoframbow.com/
Set in "A long, hot summer in the early '80s", the film is a gentle coming-of-age comedy. It tells the story of two schoolboys who are inspired by Rambo: First Blood (which they see on a pirate videotape) to make their own action adventure film. Lee Carter (Will Poulter) — the worst-behaved boy in school — has access to home video equipment as he helps his brother's video pirating enterprises. Will (Bill Milner) couldn't be more different; quiet and shy he comes from a family who belong to the strict Plymouth Brethren religious sect; he is forbidden to watch films or television. When he gets caught up with Carter and accidentally sees First Blood, he is blown away, and becomes Carter's willing co-star and stuntman.
Son Of Rambow Preview
Feature length: 95 minutes
Country: Britain (2008 )
Certificate: 12A (those under 12 must be accompanied by an adult)
Two boys set out to recreate Rambo in this nostalgic, moving tale of 1980s childhood from the filmmakers behind The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy
Son Of Rambow is the second film of 2008 to wistfully recall the VHS age of the 1980s as a time of artistic awakening. Released just after Michel Gondry's celebration of DIY blockbuster remakes in Be Kind Rewind, Son Of Rambow tells the story of two boys brought together by a shared dream to remake Sylvester Stallone's first performance as John Rambo in First Blood.
The remake is the idea of Lee Carter (Poulter), who wants to turn his video piracy kit to more creative uses. He meets the withdrawn Will Proudfoot (Milner) in the school corridor, both boys excluded from lessons for very different reasons; Carter for his disruptive behaviour, Proudfoot for the religious beliefs of his family, the Plymouth Brethern, which forbid him to sit in on any class in which a television is playing.
This proscription means that when young Will watches First Blood on Carter's TV, it blows his mind. He runs home in a charged state, halfway between fantasy and a hallucination in which his father is imprisoned and he is the action hero to free him. In fact, Will's father is dead of an aneurysm that struck him down while he was mowing the lawn. So when he arrives home there is only his mother (Stevenson) waiting for him. Lee Carter's home life is similarly under-populated; his mother and step-dad are off in Spain, leaving him in the care of his surly older brother.
Rambo is a surrogate father figure to both these boys, and their effort to recreate the film is a rite of passage into manhood. Anyone who was a boy in the 1980s will remember the muscular grip that Stallone's two key characters of Rocky and Rambo had over their early adolescence. Rambo's serrated blade was a coveted item, the handle unscrewed and within there was wire and various survival implements. Boys want to prove themselves. In the freedom of a 1980s childhood, those challenges were faced in the scrubland and disused factories on the outskirts of provincial towns. Nature was our video game.
Son Of Rambow luxuriates in the sentiment of a lost era. When a coachload of exchange students arrive from France, they bring a Gallic sophistication unknown to callow English youth. In the smoking, new wave figure of Didier Revol (Sitruk), it also delivers a star for Carter and Proudfoot's production. With Revol on board, the whole school wants a part in the film, leading to a kids-from-'Fame' style climax that is undercut by sudden tragedy.
Moving, funny and utterly British, this is a triumph for all concerned. Poulter is hard-faced, sullen yet vulnerable as Lee Carter. Milner is gawky, otherworldly yet determined as Proudfoot. Against their well-observed, changing relationship, an idealistic vision of the 1980s turns, the hair, the clothes, and a sixth form common room that is all new wave music and boardgames. Consider it a warm, hazy counterpart to Shane Meadows's harder-edged 1980s skinhead memoir This Is England.
The comparison with Be Kind Rewind is more flattering. Like Gondry, Hammer & Tongs established their reputation as creators of music videos, and some of their background in the three-minute bravura sequence finds its way in here. Unlike Gondry, they handle the narrative demands of a feature film far better, with the trajectories of the two boys interweaving, descending, ascending and ultimately coming together in a genuinely moving resolution.
Verdict
A warm, accessible and smart British film that will bring a tear to the eye of anyone who was once a British boy.
http://www.channel4.com/film
